Springsure

History

The area was originally occupied by Aboriginal people, for thousands of years.

Ludwig Leichhardt was the first European to explore the area between 1843 and 1845. His favourable reports encouraged settlers to move in and settle the land being traversed by local Aboriginal groups. Squatter Horatio Wills and a party of Victorian settlers arrived near modern-day Springsure in 1861. Two weeks later, 19 men women and children, including Wills, were killed by Aboriginal Australian people, the Kairi or Gayiri, in the Cullin-La-Ringo massacre, the largest massacre of European settlers by Aborigines in Australian history. At least 15 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by the Queensland Native Police and militias of local European colonists and their employees, in a series of reprisals over the months that followed. However, the massacre of the 19 European family members was itself a retaliatory response to an earlier shooting of fugitive murderer who was Gayiri tribesman by Jesse Gregson (manager of nearby Rainsworth Station) with Second Lieutenant Alfred March Patrick and Native Police Troops in his command. Prior to the massacre of the 19 colonists, Second Lieutenant Patrick had complained, in early 1861, to Charles Dutton (lessee of Bauhinia Downs pastoral lease 148 km south-east of Springsure) that other officers in the Queensland Native Police "...had been able to bag their first Aborigine after only a few weeks in the Force; he had served for six months and still had not yet killed a black." The Old Rainworth Fort was built in 1862 by the colonists of Springsure in order to defend themselves from future raids by Aboriginals .

Horatio's son, star cricketer and Australian rules football pioneer Tom Wills, survived the massacre, and remained on site until 1864.

On 6 December 1919, the Springsure State School Memorial Fountain was dedicated by Mrs Annie Wheeler (née Laurie), a former pupil at the school. The memorial is a marble fountain and commemorates students of the school who served in World War I.

On 16 November 1943 a Douglas C-47A Skytrain broke up in mid-air during a violent storm in the area, and crashed on Rewan Station, just south of Spingsure. All 19 people on board the aircraft perished in the crash.

Today, Springsure is a pastoral settlement serving cattle farms, and sunflower, sorghum, wheat and chickpea plantations.

Springsure State School opened on 14 March 1870.

Heritage listings

Springsure has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

Feature

A cliff face in the hills surrounding Springsure is known to the area as Virgin Rock, named because it once looked like the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, although years of erosion have blurred the original resemblance.

Facilities

Facilities at Springsure include an airport, caravan park, hospital, library, motocross track, police station, service station and showground.

Education

Springsure State School has 134 students enrolled and 17 teachers (17 equivalent full time). Their school motto is 'Success by Effort'.

Springsure is the hub for several coal mines such as the Minerva Mine and the Rolleston Mine. Significant exploration is ongoing in the district. It is also a staging point for expeditions to the Carnarvon National Park.

Notable residents